Friday, January 4, 2008

[Vancouver] Sumi Jo with the VSO!

For Immediate Release January 4, 2008

World-Renowned Soprano Sumi Jo Performs With the VSO

Vancouver BC -The darling of the Metropolitan Opera and beloved worldwide, breathtaking Korean soprano Sumi Jo makes her triumphant return to Vancouver on January 21st at the Orpheum. Sumi Jo's debut performance with the VSO two years ago was an extraordinary success, with thunderous standing ovations and the audience clamoring for more. Now, this truly great soprano returns with a new program of operatic favourites by Rossini, Verdi and Donizetti. The VSO also welcomes back former Associate Conductor and current Victoria Symphony Music Director Tania Miller to conduct what will be a very special evening indeed.

Sumi Jo, a disciple of Maria Callas and Dame Joan Sutherland, has emerged as one of the most beautiful voices in contemporary Opera. She is widely admired for the astonishing emotional expression, authenticity, and warmth of her voice. As an Accademia Nazional di Santa Cecilia-trained coloratura soprano, she is a true diva of the highest order, earning lavish praise from peers and critics alike. Herbert von Karajan called Sumi Jo "a voice from Heaven." Her last appearance in Vancouver was a revelation to Vancouver audiences, with reactions the likes of which are rarely seen; audiences and critics were blown away - and will be again!

Tania Miller has a rapidly growing reputation as a consummate musician, leader, and communicator in today's orchestral scene. The 2007/2008 Season will mark Ms. Miller's fifth season as Music Director of the Victoria Symphony Orchestra.

Prior to her work in Victoria, Ms. Miller was with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra from 2000-2004, first as Assistant Conductor and later as Associate Conductor. Her many North American guest conducting engagements include the Toronto, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Calgary, Windsor, Oregon, Montreal, Toledo, London (ON), and Saskatoon Symphony Orchestras, and she recently made her European debut conducting the Berne Symphoniker in Switzerland where she will return in the 2008/2009 season.

Sumi Jo's first break as a soprano came in 1986 as Gilda in Giuseppe Verdi's opera, Rigoletto in Trieste, Italy. Successfully completing her debut, her exquisite timbre and musicality was immediately recognized and her international career took off. In 1987, she made her Salzburg Festival debut as Oscar in Verdi's Un Ballo in Maschera opposite Placido Domingo and under maestro Herbert von Karajan. Karajan who passed away the following year, called her "a voice from heaven".

Since then, she has performed in numerous operas including Donizetti's Lucia De Lamermoor in Strasbourg, Barcelona, Paris, and New York; Bellini's La Sonnambula in Santiago del Chile; Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier in Los Angeles; Verdi's Rigoletto in Bilbao and Oviedo in Spain, Bologna and Trieste in Italy and New York; Rossini's Il Turco in Spain; Ravel's LEnfant et les Sortileges in Boston and Pittsburgh; Rossini's Le Comte Ory in Rome and Aix-en-Provence Festival in France.

Sumi Jo currently has 48 recordings to her credit, including ten solo albums for Erato, French division of Warner Classic. These recordings include complete operas, oratories, operetta, and orchestra works. Among them include her Grammy-winning Die Frau Ohne Schatten with Sir Georg Solti for the London/Decca label and Un Ballo in maschera for Deutsche Grammophon under Herbert von Karajan.

TANIA MILLER conductor

Tania Miller began studying piano and organ at age eight, and by 13 was organist and choir conductor at her church. Although Miller had aspirations of a performance career, the onset of tendonitis in her late teens led her to enroll in music education at the University of Saskatchewan in 1987. Several years later, at the University of Calgary's summer conducting program, Miller was encouraged by Robert Reynolds to attend the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. There she was awarded the Ernest T. Jones Conducting Scholarship in 1997 and completed doctoral studies in opera and orchestral conducting under Reynolds and Kenneth Keisler in 2000.

Tania Miller was the Assistant Conductor for the VSO prior to her current position as the Music Director for the Victoria Symphony Orchestra. She co-founded the Michigan Opera Works in 1997 with a mandate to provide performance opportunities for emerging young professional artists. She also served as Artistic Director and conductor from 1997-2000, and led productions of Handel's Semele, Britten's The Rape of Lucretia, Purcell's Dido and Aeneas, and Mozart's Cosi fan Tutte. Ms. Miller has also conducted with Detroit's Friends of Opera in performances of Puccini's La Boheme. In 2000, she was asked to conduct a production of Offenbach's Les Contes d'Hoffmann in 2000 with Opera McGill of Montreal on short notice when their conductor fell ill. The performances were such a success that she was invited back the following season to conduct Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro.

Ms. Miller has worked extensively in the areas of Baroque and contemporary music. Her work as the Assistant Conductor of the Carmel Bach Festival from 1997-2001 gave her a unique opportunity to work closely with the internationally renowned conductor Bruno Weil and many of the world's leading Baroque artists. Tania began her work in the field of contemporary music as Assistant conductor of the Banff Festival of the Arts in 1997 in Banff, Canada. She has been a frequent guest conductor with the Toronto contemporary ensemble ERGO, with whom she premiered a number of compositions in Munich, Toronto and New York.Originally from Foam Lake, Saskatchewan, Tania Miller received her D.M.A and Master's degree in conducting from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan; studying with teachers Kenneth Kiesler and H. Robert Reynolds.